To explain to people dyslexia isn't just about jumbled words when you read

[BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot]

The jumbled letters is one aspect (for me the page swims making it hard to read rather than what people stereotypically think of as dyslexic reading).

It affects memory, processing speed, organisation, spatial awareness, and concentration levels among other things.

I like to think of myself as an intelligent woman but have to work extremely hard to overcome my issues. My organisationso skills I've had to work extremely hard at and put strategies in place in the workplace, my processing speed I have to explain to people I can't just read an email or report and ping a response straight back to them, my spatial awareness can be an issue when driving (I always er on caution and don't attempt to get through a gap or go for a space if I think I can't do it).

On the plus side I am extraordinarily creative as many people with dyslexia are!

Just wanted to say that there are many ways it affects people!

My daughter is waiting on an assessment for Dyslexia, and has been told she has visual stress already. We’re booking her next eye exam with an Irlen trained optometrist and should hopefully get some decent glasses out of that for her.

Incy we have been told that the process is a long one to illuminate all colours and shades so specifically glasses will be more a long haul solution - rather than a quick fix

Let me know how you get on

Honestly if you get a pack of overlays you can do your own experiments whilst you're waiting for the optometrist, for instance I cannot read through a blue overlay it makes the letters swim worse. I've done it with kids at the school I help at, just gone through the overlays and asked them to pick what helps, it doesn't matter a diagnosis for that it's just a resource and if it helps then great who cares what the label is?

I prefer using my glasses but I also use the off the shelf overlays which of course are not custom coloured.

My glasses I was lucky my work paid for them (cost a fortune!) and it took a loooong consultation to find the exact colour for me - and the optician said I was unusually specific and definite about the colours whereas it usually takes longer.

Incidentally, the only screens i can comfortably use without getting visual stress disturbances are the retina displays on apple devices. Anything else I have to change the colour settings on the display. Anyone else find that?

She’s had the basic colour stress done at school and finds one of the greens and one of the lilacs the most comfortable. The optician is a private one so hopefully no waiting times, just being able to get straight on with the tedious job of lens compatibility.

It’s going to cost a fortune, but it will hopefully work out.

Totally agree. My daughter is dyslexic but all I hear from people is she can read really well. Well yes, but she needs lots of support with her working memory and working memory.

Ed psych suggested getting an Irlen test too, but I couldn't afford that after the ed psych appointment. But we got a set of overlays and she picks out what helps her. It was a magical moment when she said it glued the words to the page. Shocking that in 2018 something that can make such a huge difference to children's learning is only discovered £500 later. I think parents should be more aware but it's not their fault they're not.

working memory and processing speed I meant

My daughter is dyslexic, finally confirmed this summer at the age of 13 when I had her privately tested, I got fed up with the school saying she was doing fine because she wasn't failing (she was sitting around average), it turns out she is very intelligent and should be in G&T but dyslexia is holding her back.

Her reading is ok, especially since she found the dyslexia font on Kindle Fire. But her processing speed, sequencing, spelling and writing are extremely bad.

She's now getting help so we are hoping she can progress to where she should be.

I found the attitude very frustrating - that it wasn't about what she could achieve but just about that she wasn't failing, and I've heard this from other parents as well.

This is all interesting.

My dd is 9 and I am convinced she has some sort of issue such as those mentioned above. She has had a dyslexia screening test at school and it indicated she wasn't dyslexic. However, ask her to read aloud and she really struggles- she stumbles over words, misreads them, and skips lines of texts, jumbles it all up, reads basic words incorrectly. She also has word finding difficulties when talking. She is clever though and somehow manages to score highly at school in reading comprehension. Her spelling/memory and handwriting are all very good. I just don't get it. She is a confident child and I almost think this has disguised her issues for the teachers. Any ideas?

I'm reasonably aware about dyslexia, so when my dad was diagnosed at the age of 58, loads of things about him suddenly made perfect sense.

My mum refuses to read up on dyslexia 'because he reads the paper. He's just bloody awkward about his routines. He's quite capable of breaking off something, he's just being difficult' etc.

Arrgh!

Whyam - it's appalling isn't it? I don't blame the teaching profession as a whole (though my son's particular teacher is not helpful) - they are under immense financial pressure, so from their perspective "average" is a good enough outcome. There are children with much more severe educational needs than my son in the school so that's the group they focus on. But as a parent, what I see is my incredibly able child being accepted as "just average and that's fine" because his intelligence enables him to compensate for the dyslexia and the dyslexia masks his intelligence. (He had a brilliant teacher back in year 3 who was very supportive of getting him tested because she could see the massive mismatch between what he was capable of verbally and what was happening on paper).

There are children with much more severe educational needs than my son in the school so that's the group they focus on

This in bucket loads - nobody is denying these kids the help - but so many are not even on the radar to begin with! It's appalling that they are 'all inclusive' yet don't help those who need including.

I work in a school and I'm fighting for a few kids who I've been told 'they'll be fine' 'they can't use laptops' 'we can't afford yellow paper'

So please please all speak up and speak out - don't leave them to suffer and turn off the their education, when simple things can make their lives easier

We aRe dyslexia trained in my secondary humanities department but the school refuses to fund anything we ask for. It is frustrating. Even photocopyinf on coloured paper costs 3p more per a4 one sides sheet and we have a small budget. School budgets are a massive problem to children wh have any sort of need.

My daughter is lucky. Her school have provided books with alternative coloured paper for her. Bog standard state secondary in a poor city. They provided some overlays too, and I’ve bought spares.

I did buy her a ream of coloured paper to take in to school for printouts, just because I thought it was polite to do so.

*The optician is a private one so hopefully no waiting times, just being able to get straight on with the tedious job of lens compatibility.

It’s going to cost a fortune, but it will hopefully work out.*

We went private for lenses Nhs waiting times was a year only 1 nhs hospital in Scotland did them anyway Dd found an improvement quickly

The difference that overlays have made is great, but they don’t help for devices, different computers, orchestra sheet music (is never A4, and there are too many sheets for easy overlay use and photocopying it onto coloured paper is illegal!). We’re really hoping the lenses will make a positive difference.

They will incy and she will be more confident in herself. Dd uses hers for driving too as the road signs danced

YANBU I'm totally fed up with each teacher dd has saying 'but she doesn't complain about the letters moving around!'.

Maybe not, but have you noticed that she never remembers to change her books, bring her Violin home, can't tell the time or understand the meaning of dates....all the while she's the most logical person in the room. It takes her AGES to understand a new concept, yet when she's got it she can apply reasoning to it in a way that someone else would have to be taught.

She also has Irlens...I'd highly recommend seeing Alan Penn if any of you are near Derby.

DD's dyslexia was diagnosed very late because her handwriting was fine and her reading age had always been ahead of her actually age. Her biggest problem is processing delay.

Ds has dysgraphia and didn't read properly until he was 12.

At the age of 8 his teacher said he was below nursery standards and had I considered that main stream education would always be beyond him.

Within 2 years I was teaching him Maths gcse work

His issue was he could do the work if someone read out the question. He just couldn't read the question.

Yes yes yes! My job involves occasionally reading out loud. I get so dizzy. Sometimes I can't make the sentence order itself. My colkeagues know, and I laugh at some of my mistaken interpretations!

My daughter’s handwriting is minute, it’s painful to read, and it’s painful for her to write. It takes her an age and frustrates her immensely.

Coloured paper is ‘relaxing’ it somewhat, sonwe’re hopeful that by the time she sits her GCSEs she’ll have legible script!

I am dyslexic and education was tough. I didn't engage with most of it. I just found reading and writing so mentally draining. It would take so much effort to do. Still as much as I love a good story I rarely read a book because although I can read it just seem to sap so much of my mental energy and take me twice as long as others. I also hated being in special needs classes at school. They did not know what to do with me. All the other kids in the special needs class had far more serious learning difficulties to me and the work they gave them was simply not sutible for me. It was quite demoralising. Often my dyslexia still causes me to make mistakes and misunderstandings, sometimes comically.

It still effects my life every day. It means you have to work harder than others just to get to the same level. Having said that I'm no dummy, I'm intelligent and dispite it and my poor background I have been succesful in life. I have never let it hold me back but it is pain in the arse sometumes.

Both my (now adult) boys are dyslexic. Very different presentations, I still clearly remember thinking that my second son wasn't when he started school. I am still regularly surprised at the things that cause them problems - living with dyslexia is tough but they are doing ok.